Canadian Satirist Set to Achieve Online World Record

TORONTO, June 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - On September 7, 2002, Ira Nayman launched Les Pages aux Folles, a website of political and social satire. The first week in September, 2022 will mark the 20^th anniversary of the site, likely the longest regularly updated comedy website created by a single person.

Initially, Nayman had hoped to become a newspaper satirist in the vein of his hero, Art Buchwald. In 2002, a good friend pointed out to him that it was odd that his PhD dissertation explored the issue of fiction writers who used the World Wide Web to distribute their work, yet he was a fiction writer with experience online who did not.

You can't argue with logic like that.

By its 20^th anniversary, Les Pages aux Folles will be comprised of 38 collections of satirical articles (13 of which have been self-published in print) and nine books of cartoons. It will contain over 3,500 individual pieces of writing comprised of between two and a quarter and two and a half million words. A poem that appeared on the site won the 2010 Jonathan Swift Satire Writing contest.

"It is quite an accomplishment when you consider that over 90 per cent of personal blogs are abandoned within six months of their creation," Nayman pointed out.

To celebrate his achievement, Nayman has produced "12 From 20," a series of ebooks that will be released throughout the anniversary year. Each book will focus on a different feature of Les Pages aux Folles, begin with an introduction discussing the evolution of the feature and conclude with "The Back Story," which outlines the history of the project.

Ira Nayman has also had eight novels published by Elsewhen Press, most recently The Ugly Truth. The short story "Girls Rule the Steampunk World!", his 22^nd, was published in Brave New Girls: Chronicles of Misses and Machines. He also edited Amazing Stories magazine for three years.

Is satire still relevant in a post-truth era? "More than ever!" Nayman, student of comedy as well as practitioner, enthused. "The worse reality gets, the greater is our need for cathartic laughter!"

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/canadian-satirist-set-to-achieve-online-world-record-301564174.html

SOURCE Les Pages aux Folles